Hal Alpiar's Blog » Objectives/Strategies/Tactics

WHAT “Contingency Plan”?

Hal Alpiar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:31:08 +0000

Feeling Invincible? . . .

Think Only Wussy Types

Fret Over “What If” Stuff?

Perhaps consciousness of the fragility of life has never struck you or your business full force. Perhaps you’ve somehow managed to escape the anguish, angst, and fears attached to the reality of your own or the life of someone close hanging by a thread. Perhaps you’re too young or too lucky or too blessed to have ever known the stress of having machines do the breathing and feeding and medicating and pain management?

~~~~~~~

If that is even partly true of you, don’t let today pass without giving it at least a few moments of thought. Why? Because just as a business with no sign is a sign of no business, a business or business leader without good health — or a poor-health contingency plan– is the sign of a sick or unhealthy business.

“Nah,” a strong-willed 30-something entrepreneur responded to that idea, “My business is healthy,” he said, ”and I have no provision for disaster because I work our regularly and I’m in good shape, we have a long-term lease, our customer base is growing steadily, and prospective investors are standing in line!”

“But surely,” I offered, “you have some kind of insurance coverage? Fire and theft? An office policy? Collision? Life? Health?” He cocked his head as if I’d hit him with an illegal punch, “Sure, but so what? THAT is MY contingency plan. Things go south? I just file claims and collect enough to start something else!”

“That’s good,” I said, “because burglaries and fires and tsunamis and earthquakes and hurricanes and tornados do happen, but I’m talking about catastrophic illness. That happens too.” Ask around. You’ll find plenty of people who’ve experienced sudden ill health, who suffered, and whose businesses suffered because they had no contingency plan.

When that “CLOSED DUE TO FAMILY ILLNESS” sign goes up on the front door (or website), dwindling (sometimes plummeting) customer loyalty and support follow. We live in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? society.

Are you ready to face critical damage to your revenue stream and threats to the life support system your enterprise has routinely fostered?

What steps will you take and in what order? Or who will pinch-hit for you? What impact can your suppliers and customers expect, and how –specifically– will they be dealt with to accommodate their needs and to keep things running and moving forward? What gears will need to be shifted? By whom? When?

The time to deal with contingency planning is now, and to re-visit the plan at least once a year. The cost to plan is time. The cost to cope without a plan can be annihilating. It’s certainly true that expectations breed disappointment, but it’s equally true that having no plan is like captaining a rudderless ship.

And then there’re storms . . .

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Open Minds Open Doors

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TEST Where You’re Going

Hal Alpiar — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:46:56 +0000

Get it in writing . . .

The Hardest Business Task!

Yes, test your objectives. Yes, test your strategies. Yes, test your tactics. And, yes –first and foremost– test your concepts. It’s the only sensible way (before spending money on ideas that might sound great, but that fail to produce), to make sure your pursuits are solidly grounded and integrally connected.

~~~~~~~

What’s the hardest task in business? It’s really not hiring and firing, or funding, or maintaining operations, or making sales (though HR, finance, operations, and sales people may all want to lay claim to having the most difficult jobs). The hardest task is getting it in writing. Huh”? What’s “it”? And what’s so hard about writing? Writing what?

I believe the most challenging of all business tasks is getting your direction and contingency plans straight. (Considering widely-published SBA findings that over 90% of business failures are attributable to “poor management,” knowing where you’re going is certainly Job One for most entrepreneurs.)

Writing your objectives clearly, simply, specifically, realistically, flexibly –and with a due date attached– has proven time and again to make the difference between revenues and profits, between success and SUCCESS!

The more principals, partners, investors, advisors, managers involved, the harder the task. It becomes exponentially difficult because –to have any value– everyone involved must agree at least somewhat with every word. In other words, agreeing on a precise target is sometimes the most trying of all challenges.

Is it (your target objective) the same as your Mission or Vision Statement?

No, but it probably needs to directly reflect both.

Whatever the objectives (or goals) are that you verbalize for yourself or your business, they need to be:

A) Missions in and of themselves, and they must fit conceptually under the umbrella of your own or your company’s overall Mission Statement.

[If your objective(s) fail to measure up to your overall Mission Statement, or don't quite fit under its umbrella, re-examine where you're headed with things. You may need to switch gears, or direction, or timing, or desired results.]

B) Following the path of your Vision Statement.

[If this isn't happening, redirect your focus or re-visit your Vision Statement to consider some adjustments.]

Can you make changes and still be “on-target” with your pursuits? Absolutely! Remember that flexibility (together with realistic, specific, and due-dated) is one of the key criteria for effective goal-setting. If you’re not reaching the goal you defined, be flexible enough to redefine it, or change the tactics you’re using.

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You have 340,666 minutes left!

Hal Alpiar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:35:37 +0000

What will you do with

your time this year?

FACT: As of January 10, you will have already spent 14,400 minutes of this new year that you’ll never get back. QUESTION: On a scale of 1-10 (10 being best), how would you rate the value of your 2012 accomplishments so far? ONE MORE QUESTION: What will you do with the remaining 340,666 minutes (511,000 minutes minus 1/3 for sleep) in 2012?

~~~~~~~

Can the last question really be answered? Of course not. How could you possibly know what situations and circumstances will impact your intentions? So maybe intentions are not such a great thing. We’ve heard, after all, that they pave the road to hell, hmmm? And they’re kind of like expectations, right?

And don’t expectations breed disappointment?

So where does all this quibbling over semantics actually leave us? Hopefully . . . (aw, wait a minute, isn’t “hopefully” like an intention and expectation combined?). Well then, is this an end to planning as we know it? Do we throw the goals out with the posts? (A little pun there for football fans.) Do we stop having objectives to pursue?

Planning is essential, but it is not a trigger for compulsive pursuit at all costs.

How do we know this? Because planning (i.e, goal-setting) has been long proven to be successful only if the process of goal-setting adheres firmly to specific criteria, and one of these is flexibility. The less flexible, the more stress. The more stress the greater the odds for failure.

There is something to be said for the thrust and direction of many, if not most, entrepreneurially-spirited engines . . . something that is most succinctly put as “living for the moment.” Entrepreneurs instinctively seek immediate gratification and are more focused on the “here and now” present moment than those in other careers.

It’s that old thing grandpa used to say about not putting off ’til tomorrow what you can do today. Entrepreneurs are business junkies. They have a powerful need for a quick fix when things start to flounder or deteriorate, or when last week’s “high” begins to wear off. Sound familiar? It’s true. Look around. Ask around.

Small business owners and operators have mostly learned the hard way –through trial and error and intuitive “street smarts”– that ongoing quick-fix actions are the only ones that get results, and keep businesses moving forward when the tide is changing or the current is a backwash.

But swimming upstream for any period of time can be exhausting to say the least, so the idea of taking immediate corrective/adjustment action needs, in reality, to be tapered only with the commitment to take only reasonable risks in the process, and to always imagine the worst case scenario before proceeding.

Try repetitively asking yourself the following question all during any crisis or critical period, hourly if need be:

“Is what I’m doing right this very minute

leading me to where I want to go?”

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Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Time indeed marches on – Happy New Year!

Hal Alpiar — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:36:18 +0000

What ARE you waiting for?

_____________________________

I know, I know. You’re waiting for a parade. The doctor? Next Christmas? Someone else to go first? Your parent’s approval? Ah, your boss’s approval. A work order? 5PM? Lunchtime? Oh, right, vacation. Your birthday? A full moon? High tide? Rock bottom? Another way out? The Mets to play the Cubs in The World Series? (HA!) The car in front of you to get out of the passing lane? Your child to become President? Your Father to strike oil? Aaaaaah, of course, a winning lottery ticket.

___________________

If you seriously answered “YES” to any of the above, you are too filled with excuses to make a success of yourself. I really can’t help you. My, um, best guess is that Psssssst! YOU NEED A SHRINK! Visit again sometime after therapy!

Now. Who’s left out there? Anybody? Good. Well, there’s still hope for you after all. Since time truly does fly, if you’re truly not waiting for some event or person in order to move forward with your life –and especially your business pursuits– then odds are you’ve just been procrastinating. Christmas has passed.

Putting stuff off is okay sometimes. It happens to all of us. But you might need to give yourself a smack alongside your head, or if you can work it out, kick yourself in the butt (?). At least get yourself in gear to answer the two following questions:

Question One:

How much more productive can you be with your waiting time? (Like bank lines, traffic lights, bridges, RR crossings, commuter trains, subways, boats and buses, the dentist, Motor Vehicle Bureau?)

Question Two:

What’s normally in your pocket, briefcase or pocketbook while you’re waiting?

IF

. . . your answer does NOT include: A pen, paper, or laptop, voice recorder or cellphone (to handle a few business calls that don’t require extensive note taking) or Blackberry (to send yourself some notes of ideas you get so you needn’t carry them in your head?) … or digital camera, pocket pad or sticky notes, or a book to read …

THEN

. . . the answer to Question One above is that you can be a LOT more productive just by carrying these items. [Hint: Those listed are all tools or avenues of productivity).

I know people who’ve put together complete photo essays standing in line at the post office. I know an engineer who says he stimulates his brain by sketching vehicles and machinery while waiting for trains and bridges.

I know highly acclaimed writers who write as many street and business names down as they can see while stopped at red lights (that they can cherry-pick from later when they’re seeking character and location names for their works of fiction).

The point is, like the old Schlitz Beer commercials used to proclaim, “You only go round once in life!” (Well some maybe do a few trips, but most of us, well . . . ) and how convenient that we all only remember how short lifetimes can be when someone close to us passes away. You're here to make a difference, aren't you?

SO, stop fooling yourself with delays, excuses, nonproductive and unproductive waits. Stop staring into space wishing you were somewhere else. Stop bemoaning the lousy delay experiences and start DOING the stuff you’ve been saying, “Well, someday, I …”

T O D A Y is “someday”!

Some action is always better than no action. And remember that it’s ALL YOUR CHOICE because all of behavior is a choice. So choose to march shoulder-to-shoulder with time, not ahead of it, not behind it, but with it.

Make the most of 2012. Make your mark.

Make a difference. Make 2012 YOUR year!

Love, health, and happiness to each of you!

# # #

302.933.0116 Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

The BEST 10 STEPS for 2012

Hal Alpiar — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:42:34 +0000

The best New Year’s

message I can share

with you comes…

. . . from one of my life’s heroes, Dr. Wayne Dyer.

It’s a 10-Point Pursuit Plan that I’ve dressed up a bit for the occasion, for your business, for your SELF, and to share with your family. If you succeed at making only HALF of these actually work consistently, I GUARANTEE that this coming year will be as happy, healthy and prosperous for you as humanly possible.

DO YOUR SELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR BUSINESS A FAVOR and read these ten points aloud to yourself. Write them down. Carry them in your wallet/pocketbook/briefcase. Tape a copy to your bathroom mirror, your dashboard, your computer workstation, inside your desk drawer, your workout bag, your refridgerator, the closet bar that holds your hangers.

READ AND RECITE before you go to bed, when you wake up, and any other time you can squeeze it into your day. You will positively amaze yourself with the results after just 21 days, and it’s FREE!! Go for it!

1. Want more for others than you do for yourself.

2. See yourself already having what you seek.

3. Be an appreciator of everything in your life as much as you can throughout each day, every day.

4. Stay in touch with your own and other positive human energy sources, and laugh as hard and often as you can.

5. Understand resistence, and help yourself and others to go with the flow.

6. Imagine yourself surrounded by the conditions you want to produce.

7. Understand the path of least resistence.

8. Practice radical humility.

9. Be in a constant state of gratitude.

10. You can never resolve a problem by condemning it.

If you think you’re going to give up on this, don’t start it. A little bite will only leave a bad taste.

BUT if you think you have what it takes to get your act together and take it on the road, if you think you have enough self-discipline to follow and practice the behaviors these 10 points suggest, you will positively succeed — even against all odds. Remember these 10 points are all about behavior. Behavior is a choice!

~~~~~~~

More FREE insights on

2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

Come visit me at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site and comment on my Guest Blog posts:

LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

“I” IS FOR INTEGRITY

and “T” IS FOR TRUST.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

In Debt? Who’s Not? So What?

Hal Alpiar — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:22:57 +0000

When business ownership feels claustrophobic…

Debt? Get Used To It!

DID YOU KNOW THIS?

[Source: www.cnsnews.com 11/17/11]

Three weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Dept. reported that the federal government’s debt had exceeded $15 Trillion for the first time in the history of America, hitting $15,033,607,255,920.32 and safe to assume that it’s higher yet as of today.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just estimated that there were 93,641,000 full-time private sector workers in America in 2010 (and 18,073,000 full-time workers in federal, state, and local government.
That means the $15.0336 Trillion federal debt equals approximately $160,545 per full-time private sector worker.
Given that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were approximately 76,089,045 families in America in 2010, the federal debt equals approximately $197,579 for each and every American family.

Besides your vote on November 6, 2012, is there no escape? Well, you could close up shop, grab your piggy bank, and head for some remote island, getting sunburn and mosquito bites and drinking piña coladas and coco locos until you can’t walk or talk — not to mention that there’s just so much coconut milk your system can take!

OR, you could –what did Grandpa used to say?– buckle up, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, put your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone! Not a pretty picture.

You COULD simply make productive use of this traditionally slow business time (unless you’re in retailing, in which case you’re not taking time to read anything right now, least of all a blog post) by doing a little introspection and a quick reassessment of your year-end and new-year goals. Are your goals ALL 6 OF THESE? . . .

Realistic? Specific?

Flexible? Due-Dated?

Written on paper?

In your pocket?

If your goals don’t meet ALL of these criteria, they are the stuff of wishlists and fantasyland. Don’t kid yourself into thinking they’ll work if you skip a couple. But if you follow all six, and keep adjusting them as you go (Flexible, remember?), you will have insured yourself of the best possible outcome. Why settle for less? It’s a choice.

What’s the single most important thing you learned about your SELF in 2011? What’s the single most important thing you learned about your BUSINESS in 2011? How can you combine these two revelations to do a better job of protecting your self and your business in 2012? Roadblocks? What? Detours? Where? Solutions?

Why all the hoopla on goals? Because we’re all in debt up to our ears and there are no miracle prospects on the horizon, so the best solution is to take what you have and work your butt off to make it better, to make it work in spite of what union/government/corporate giant muckity-mucks do or don’t do. It’s all about YOU.

With 30 million small businesses in America, and you as part of that universe, there is untold opportunity for moving forward as a free spirit entrepreneur, and there is untold opportunity for moving forward by working in concert with other like-minded small businesses. Call it collaboration, strategic alliance, whatever works.

In the end, Business Works. Does yours?

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”W”

Hal Alpiar — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:31:32 +0000

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“W”…WISHING

WISHING may make it so in Peter Pan or The Wizard of Oz, but it’s a death knell in small business. Like hoping and dreaming, wishing accomplishes nothing. As entrepreneurs, the sooner we face reality and anchor ourselves in the present here-and-now moment for as many passing moments of every day as we possibly can, the sooner we will achieve success.

~~~~~~~

No need to take my word for this sweeping rhetoric. It’s been proven endlessly over the ages by every successful, big-name entrepreneur who ever lived — from Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Dale Carnegie, to Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Mary Kay Ashe.

So if this is such common knowledge, why doesn’t every entrepreneur succeed? Part of the answer is in the title of this blog post. We are taught from childhood to wish upon a star, that if we find a container on the beach and rub it, a genie will appear and grant three wishes, and so on.

Why do I bring this to our attention now, as we reach the end of the alphabet? Because besides that tonight, we landed on “W,” we are also on the cusp of the greatest annual “wishfest” in American history.

The whole thing starts the day after Thanksgiving and typically continues until Christmas when the dried out and “wishable” Thanksgiving turkey wishbone is ready to be or has already been snapped, and is likely to be replaced by a fresh new Christmas turkey wishbone.

Besides every greeting card filled with best holiday wishes, the season itself brings with it even more wishing as we see lottery ticket sales zoom and letters to Santa abound with children’s wishlists. And then, there’s New Year’s resolutions and wishes… success, success, success!

We certainly have ample opportunities for legitimatized, formal, and official wishing, but… alas!… WE are entrepreneurs, and we know far better than any corporate counterparts or government flunkies that wishing is a colossal waste of time and energy… not praying, mind you, but wishes! We all need all the prayer we can muster.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have goals. In fact, if we are truly to succeed, goal-setting needs to be an essential and ongoing activity. And real goals –as opposed to fantasized missions– must adhere to four essential criteria, or they are not real goals, and not likely even achievable.

Ongoing? Yes, since –as you may have just discovered by clicking on the last word link above– one of the four essential goal-setting criteria is flexibility, the idea of ongoing goal-setting should be apparent. They need to be adjusted, re-adjusted, and upgraded to reflect the following truism:

Time and events cause changes in

purpose, passion, and resources.

(Aspiring political candidates should also take note!)

Do you write down your goals and write down your revised and upgraded goals and carry a copy of the latest version on your person every day? Do you go to sleep and wake up with them in your face every day? Do you keep them private except from others who:

You trust
You know have their own goals
You know will provide you with positive, reinforcing, encouragement on your pursuits

Stop wishing and start taking positive steps to make things happen. Begin in reality with written goals.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”O”

Hal Alpiar — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:14:12 +0000

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“O”…ORGANIZATION

It was going to be “O” for “Operations” but a few years back the world’s surgeons decided that “Procedures” would be a gentler, less-threatening sounding word to use in describing what happens when they take a scalpel to your body. And as businesses became more specialized, “Operations” began to dissolve from usage in the business community too. So with all that phasing out activity, I came back to one of the most important multi-purpose “O” words for life and small business success: ORGANIZATION.

~~~~~~~

There are 30 million of us (small business owners and entrepreneurs) kicking around out there, somewhere between Hawaii, Florida, Maine, and Alaska (Whew! A lot of kicking!), and –artistic, creative types not withstanding– those among us with the strongest sense of organization will generally prevail in the success arena.

“Organization” is both the dynamics of the people you’re involved with — what’s the business “chemistry”?– AND how effective are your planning and doing (action) skills? “Team chemistry” wins in sports (Just re-live World Series Game 6 a few days ago), but it also –like people and task organizing skills– wins in business.

There are of course, entire books, courses, and training programs devoted to OD (Organizational Development), so don’t expect a 700-word crash course here, but you can expect to have your cage rattled. After all, who else is going to risk being in your face and telling you to get your act together better than you have been? Right. Read on.

Now, most of what I do is write, design, create, sell, email, meet, and talk on the phone, so I’m not exactly the world’s most organized guy, but –thanks to Kathy– most all of the organizational chores associated with running a business are taken care of by her capable hands and organized brain. She actually excels at it. (Thank heaven!)

So one important rule of thumb is that if organization skills escape you, or you don’t want to justify the time it takes to sort out, prioritize, plan, and execute tasks, find someone you can trust and rely on (almost always, by the way, a spouse, because no one else really shares your values) to do the scheduling, paperwork, computer tasks, etc.

And since you probably have two thumbs, another important rule is to give up one hour every Monday to meet with your organization person or team to review progress and problems, and get the ducks in a row. (Monday, because issues can be dealt with during the week; issues raised on Thursday or Friday never get done).

I read somewhere that a famous sales guru I’ve always admired, made a dumb statement. He said It’s not time you need to manage; it’s your attitude. I understand the intent, but in reality, all entrepreneurs, by definition, have a positive attitude. Managing time is the challenge because we have only a limited amount of it available.

Not to belabor the point, but there are just so many seconds in a minute, so many minutes in an hour, so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, so many weeks in a month, so many months in a year . . . and just so many years in a lifetime, assuming you’re not from outer space just because you might act it! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

There are at least 3 zillion magic formulas for managing your emails. If you limit phone call message returns from 11:30am until noon, and from 4:30pm until 5pm, you will be more productive. People do not want to talk too much when they’re thinking about lunch or heading home.

When you make to-do lists, date them and chunk them up into small parts of big tasks. Prioritize item urgency. Cross the done deeds off with a highlighter so you can look back to see what was accomplished. If you really must use other than pen and pad because you are laptop or handheld-addicted, it’s not great, but better than nothing.

In short, experiment, but do whatever works best for you. Whatever you do– don’t ignore or avoid focusing on the getting-ready-to-act parts of your business before you charge headlong into them. Not being organized is a common entrepreneurial ailment that can crush a venture before it ever gets off the ground. Ready? Set? Go!

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Obama’s America

Hal Alpiar — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:18:54 +0000

Here’s Mr. O’s idea of business . . .

Everyone gives all the

shirts off their backs

to everyone else. Hard

work and individual

initiatives count for

nothing.

Sorry, Mr. O, but –speaking as a long established advocate of entrepreneurship and small business– we the 30 million small business owners of America have had enough!

Yes, we are the same 30 million people you refuse to acknowledge . . . the same 30 million who made this economy thrive before you came on the scene and made a mountain out of President Bush’s molehill. We are the same 30 million people who hold the key to new job creation and economic turnaround.

Yet, STILL, you refuse and resist us because your empty, naive, ill-conceived crusade to sell out our heritage in exchange for Europe’s failing Socialism is your last desperate attempt to get re-elected. The trouble is, Mr. O, that your political games cannot speak to the realities of life, nor to pulling ourselves out of incipient bankruptcy.

You, Mr. O, “The Emperor With No Clothes,” have falsely led our nation straight into a nearly irreversible economic quagmire of historic proportions, and small business owners have been the victims.

Honest, hard-working people have been victimized into unemployment lines.

Children have been misled.

Seniors are threatened.

Even those who bought into your oratory to elect you, are running scared. The Great Obama Deptression is on the doorstep, knocking. It is no longer a myth. And you are the force behind all the unnecessary pain and suffering. Yet, you continue STILL to unmercifully and relentlessly push the steamroller over small business enterprises.

But, you know what, Mr. O?The reason small businesses exist in the first place is because of the freedom our unappreciated military provides 24/7 — the brave young men and women who serve us, to whom you give only token photo op and sound bite attention– and because of America’s indestructible entrepreneurial spirit!

No matter how hard you try– you can never destroy entrepreneurship. New businesses continue to arise every day, even from the rubble your policies create. Entrepreneurial spirit will continue to grow in spite of all your efforts to suppress it.

Every step you take to kill the free market capitalism that built this country to start with, will be met with even more free market capitalism efforts and resistance. It will continue to emerge and be rebuilt again once the November 6, 2012 election ousts you from the national stage once and for all.

Only then, will we 30 million American small business owners exhale and get back to the business of kicking the framework out from under your delusional healthcare efforts and pathetic international relations programs. Only then will we see a nation restored to true leadership and purpose that serves ALL the people.

In case you may have missed it, your sadly misguided administration has been so preoccupied catering to your voter constituencies, it has missed the majority, who are no longer remaining silent.

Your 11/6/12 loss will come from your own lack of leadership and your focus on politics instead of government.

Your loss will be from building dependencies at all costs.

Good luck with your support base of illegal immigrants, Welfare roll recipients, union thugs, screaming nutcase left-wing liberals, Hollywood braindeads, and –sadly, but true and unspoken– black Americans who now see that you are not a savior after all. (You never could fill Dr. King’s shoes anyway!)

Mean-spirited babble? No. It’s the truth. It’s how history books will see your one-term destruction and the downfall of business which undermined your mismanagement of the economy. Small business will rise again and lead America out of the financial quicksand that you brought with you to the White House.

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Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Generalist? Priceless. Specialist? Worthless.

Hal Alpiar — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:43:01 +0000

Marketing, advertising,

PR and sales

industry-specific

experience?

Worthless.

An Opinion

SALES

Give me a guy who can sell ketchup, propane, decorative plants, dental insurance, or rubberbands any day over a techie geek to sell your iPads, TVs, Wii programs, or Kindles. Geeks sell geeks. Sales pros sell people. Why think small when your opportunities are big? The geek market is small. Find people who are experts at serving customers, and teach them product/service knowledge.

Looking for an exceptional salesperson for your new snack products? Stop looking in the snack product industry. Find someone who sells railroad cars full of dorm furniture to universities. Surgical supplies? Get your search engine out of the med school dropout arena and find a classy cosmetics presenter with a sparkling, eager-to-learn personality.

Oh, and remember that great salespeople don’t make great sales managers. Only great managers make great sales managers.

PR

Find a freelance writer who has some psychology background and who can write some slam-bang persuasive headlines and sentences for all kinds of products and services– someone who is tenacious in follow-up efforts. Forget about established, specialist PR firms and groups who tend to be more interested in their names than yours.

The public relations field is a breeding ground for con artists. I’ve seen top PR firms charge $25,000 a month and produce zero. If they can’t make what you have to sell be exciting, you lose. If they can’t follow up fanatically to get writers, reporters, editors, producers, and publishers pouncing on your story, you lose. You can teach someone with diverse quality PR experience about your industry media.

ADVERTISING

Skip right over any provider who claims expertise in your field, unless you’re willing to spend lots of money to make no impact. Hospital advertising is a great example. It’s pathetic. Does “Excellent People” and “We Care” float your boat? Hospitals and banks are the perfect examples of advertising waste.

Get a person or small team on board who want to help you make a difference, who know how to ignite and cultivate creative thinking applications that get results. Just because something looks nice and is clever or informative doesn’t mean that it works. It may only mean that the agency is seeking to win a design award.

Don’t settle. Do your homework and due diligence. Then teach her/him/them about your business and industry.

MARKETING

Not “marketing” like healthcare people think: physician office visits with armsful of popcorn, candy, 6-foot subs, sports and concert tickets. That’s called payola, as in bring ‘em gifts and they’ll prescribe or recommend or buy your products. It’s also called bribery, and it borders on STARK Law and other ethical violation issues.

And not marketing like Fortune 500 companies hellbent on analysis paralysis before even considering a potential packaging design, pricing structure, promotional flyer, merchandising gimmick or ad headline. Part of why big companies have too much at stake to be entrepreneurial has to do with the astronomically wasted expenses involved in frivolous product and service development and meaningless market research.

You don’t need an army of “experienced (Fill in any specialty here) marketing pros.” You need a person or small team who have a proven track-record for producing results in a variety of fields. Diversity, flexibility, and common sense abilities to work with an Objective/Strategy/Tactics framework in all types of media are what count more than “industry-specific.”

P.S. Beware “Social Media Marketing Experts” who don’t understand marketing. There are plenty of them.

THE KEY

It’s easy to teach experienced marketing/advertising/sales/PR people what they need to know about your product or service to most effectively represent it. But it’s nearly impossible to teach industry and professional practice-specific experienced people how to market, advertise, publicize and sell.

Specialization Closes Minds

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Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Hal Alpiar's Blog » Objectives/Strategies/Tactics

WHAT “Contingency Plan”?

Think Only Wussy Types

Fret Over “What If” Stuff?

~~~~~~~

Are you ready to face critical damage to your revenue stream and threats to the life support system your enterprise has routinely fostered?

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Open Minds Open Doors

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TEST Where You’re Going

The Hardest Business Task!

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Writing your objectives clearly, simply, specifically, realistically, flexibly –and with a due date attached– has proven time and again to make the difference between revenues and profits, between success and SUCCESS!

Is it (your target objective) the same as your Mission or Vision Statement?

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Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You have 340,666 minutes left!

What will you do with

your time this year?

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And don’t expectations breed disappointment?

Planning is essential, but it is not a trigger for compulsive pursuit at all costs.

“Is what I’m doing right this very minute

leading me to where I want to go?”

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Open Minds Open Doors

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Time indeed marches on – Happy New Year!

What ARE you waiting for?

_____________________________

___________________

Question One:

How much more productive can you be with your waiting time? (Like bank lines, traffic lights, bridges, RR crossings, commuter trains, subways, boats and buses, the dentist, Motor Vehicle Bureau?)

Question Two:

What’s normally in your pocket, briefcase or pocketbook while you’re waiting?

IF

THEN

T O D A Y is “someday”!

Make the most of 2012. Make your mark.

Make a difference. Make 2012 YOUR year!

Love, health, and happiness to each of you!

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The BEST 10 STEPS for 2012

The best New Year’s

message I can share

with you comes…

. . . from one of my life’s heroes, Dr. Wayne Dyer.

1. Want more for others than you do for yourself.

2. See yourself already having what you seek.

3. Be an appreciator of everything in your life as much as you can throughout each day, every day.

4. Stay in touch with your own and other positive human energy sources, and laugh as hard and often as you can.

5. Understand resistence, and help yourself and others to go with the flow.

6. Imagine yourself surrounded by the conditions you want to produce.

7. Understand the path of least resistence.

8. Practice radical humility.

9. Be in a constant state of gratitude.

10. You can never resolve a problem by condemning it.

~~~~~~~

More FREE insights on

2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

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Open Minds Open Doors

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In Debt? Who’s Not? So What?

Debt? Get Used To It!

DID YOU KNOW THIS?

Three weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Dept. reported that the federal government’s debt had exceeded $15 Trillion for the first time in the history of America, hitting $15,033,607,255,920.32 and safe to assume that it’s higher yet as of today.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just estimated that there were 93,641,000 full-time private sector workers in America in 2010 (and 18,073,000 full-time workers in federal, state, and local government.

That means the $15.0336 Trillion federal debt equals approximately $160,545 per full-time private sector worker.

Given that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were approximately 76,089,045 families in America in 2010, the federal debt equals approximately $197,579 for each and every American family.

Realistic? Specific?

Flexible? Due-Dated?

Written on paper?

In your pocket?

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Open Minds Open Doors

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116